No jockey in Australia was more “pumped” than Wendy Peel when she walked onto the Gold Coast racecourse on Saturday. For a start she was pretty chuffed to have won on French Ocean the day before at Gatton for her new boss Paul Butterworth - one of several wins for the combination since Paul took over her indentures from Nyngan (NSW) trainer Rodney Robb six weeks earlier.
Now here she was, undertaking a mission few jockeys would even contemplate. Early in the week she had tentative offers for rides on the Coast and at the Toowoomba night meeting. She planned to sort them out when acceptances became available.
Wendy had all but forgotten the application she’d lodged with Racing Queensland a few weeks earlier requesting approval to ride in metropolitan Brisbane. All hell broke loose on Tuesday (August 18th) when the controlling body gave her the green light to ride in town and Paul Butterworth offered her the ride on Canapes at Doomben.
When fields and race times finally appeared, Wendy was able to confirm seven rides at three venues. She had to reject rides on two others to make it all work. She gave little thought to the possibility that this could make racing history in Australia. If it has happened before, nobody can remember when or where.
Back to scale on Punctuality at the end of long day. This was the last of her seven rides on 3 different tracks. A winner! - courtesy Trackside Photography.
For a few heart stopping moments in the opening race at the Gold Coast, Wendy thought her carefully planned assignment was doomed to failure before it began. She led at the winning post the first time in the 2200m Maiden on the locally trained Mulroney.
The four year old gelding had previously raced over the longer trip at Warwick and on the Sunny Coast, but never on his home track. He’s accustomed to crossing the course proper near the 1600m when he enters and exits the training tracks each morning, and was looking for the gate on Saturday from the time he turned out of the straight.
“It’s a good thing he had Riverky outside him at the time,” said Wendy. “He gave that horse a very heavy bump and it seemed to bounce him back onto the track again. I thought for one horrible moment I wouldn’t be going to Doomben or Toowoomba. The horse did a terrific job to run third.”
Wendy was unplaced on Private Button and My Mate Vinny in the second and third events, while her final Coast ride Pieridae looked the winner for a few strides in the straight before finishing second to Newand in the fourth. A quick change and the busy jockey was on her way to Doomben about an hour away.
The adrenaline was flowing freely as she mounted the Butterworth trained Canapes for the ninth and final race on the card. The gelding had to cover some extra ground from a wide gate, but ran a very creditable race to finish officially seventh only 1.6 lengths from the winner Run To Glory. Another lightning change of clothes, and the dedicated twenty seven year old was on her way to Toowoomba for two rides - one for Paul Butterworth, the other for Barry Lockwood. This time she had a two hour drive ahead of her.
Wendy actually wore the Canapes colours again on King Alfonso who was doing his best work late to finish third in race 5. She then had time to catch her breath before jumping on a four year old mare called Punctuality in the final race, a 1650m Maiden. “The intention was to ride her off the pace, but she crossed effortlessly to the lead and I coasted in front all the way,” said the jockey. “I needn’t have worried. She won by five lengths and did it easily.”
A fitting finale to one hell of a day! Wendy and Punctuality romp home in the last at Toowoomba - courtesy Trackside Photography.
“It was absolutely freezing on the Darling Downs when I finally got in the car to go home. The heater got a thorough workout all the way back to Brisbane. I think it was 11pm when I fell into bed, exhausted but pretty satisfied with my day.”
Wendy Peel has travelled a long road from a childhood fascination with horses to her current role as a professional jockey. Born in Scone and reared in the tiny hamlet of Spring Ridge near Tamworth, she learned the basics from her paternal grandfather with added tutelage from mother Karen and aunty Joy, both proficient horsewomen.
Young Wendy excelled in Pony Club and reached a high level in the show jumping and eventing disciplines, by which time she’d developed a fascination with the thoroughbred breed. Her first brush with thoroughbreds came in her early teens when she was able to arrange some tuition in yearling preparation at the famous Arrowfield Stud in the Hunter Valley.
Inspired by the Arrowfield experience Wendy enrolled for a horse business management course at Marcus Oldham College at Geelong (VIC), after which she returned to Arrowfield at the height of the yearling preparation season. Sometime later she had a similar stint at the nearby Yarraman Park Stud.
Following her twelve months Marcus Oldham course Wendy gained a practical placement in France under the tutelage of expat Aussie Andrew Booth, a renowned instructor of showjumping and dressage riders. Her thirst for knowledge then lured her to America and a four month stint on a horse farm in Florida owned by Clayton Frederick. The former Aussie Olympian had developed a good business specialising in the coaching of showjumping hopefuls.
Then came the experience that would ignite her passion for riding racehorses. Wendy was working at Wellfield Lodge Stud on the outskirts of Palmerston North in NZ, when invited to ride some work by local trainer Gary Vile at the Awapuni track. “After a couple of weeks I was completely hooked,” she recalled. “I couldn’t get back to Australia quickly enough to find a job in a racing stable.”
The Palmerston North experience was the catalyst for Wendy's career as a jockey. Here she is winning a heat of the 2019 Rising Stars Series on Montana Pines at Tamworth - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Wendy started at the top. She landed a job as a strapper and work rider at Tulloch Lodge. “I was there for nine months and enjoyed working with Gai Waterhouse and her team,” she said. “It was an inspirational experience and fired me up to seek an apprenticeship.
“Peter Robl was the trainer to give me a start. He was still riding plenty of work and turned out to be an excellent tutor. He could be tough if you happened to go too quick or too slow, but he taught me the importance of judging pace correctly.”
Peter was the trainer to provide Wendy Peel’s first ever professional race ride, when he put her on a gelding called Percussion in a 1200m race at Canberra on December 1st 2017. “I never got sighted but it was quite an experience and got my career started.”
Wendy is one of precious few jockeys who can boast a Cup win at their initial race ride. While still with the Robl stable she got a call up from trainer Scott Spackman to ride a grey mare called Didnt Even Kiss Me in the 1400m Tumut Cup at Tumbarumba, a stone’s throw from the Snowy Mountains. “Scott told me the mare would lead and win, and his judgement was right on the mark,” recalled the jockey. “I was horrified when the stewards called me in after the race, but they only wanted to tell me they’d never seen a jockey with a bigger grin 200m from home. Tumbarumba is a funny little course with part of it on the side of a hill, but to me it was like riding at Flemington. Special memories.”
It was Peter Robl who suggested that Wendy Peel should transfer to a “bush” stable where opportunities would be more plentiful. He actually played a hand in gaining the young jockey a position with successful Tamworth trainer Sue Grills, with whom she was destined to spend a valuable eighteen months. “Not only was Sue very good to me, but she allowed me the time to travel to faraway meetings when other trainers were prepared to give me rides,” said Wendy.
One of those outside rides resulted in a runaway win on Anchois for Aiden St. Vincent at Scone 31/01/2019 - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
The young jockey’s progress was abruptly halted in March of 2019 when she was involved in a spectacular five horse crash at Tamworth. Wendy suffered extensive damage to her right shoulder which required ten screws and a plate - hardware she carries to this day.
Thankfully there were no complications, and she was back at the races in three months. At the time of the accident she was leading the points score in the prestigious Rising Stars Series. She missed a heat at Randwick, and that was the one thing to cause her stress. “I was so looking forward to having a ride at headquarters,” she recalls. “It was a huge disappointment.”
The other jockeys involved in the Tamworth fall had mixed fortunes. Greg Ryan and Rachel King made fairly quick recoveries from their injuries, while Kath Bell-Pitomac was out for some ten months and Josh Adams is still on the sidelines.
While recovering from shoulder surgery Wendy had a day out at Royal Randwick with her Aunt Joy.
When Wendy was ready to resume her great supporter Cody Morgan had one ready to springboard her back into the winner’s circle. “Cody had set Mr. Pumblechook for the Gulgong Cup and very kindly gave me the ride,” she said. “We had a lovely run just behind the leaders and popped out on the turn to grab them in the last bit. It was just the confidence booster I needed.”
As her country claim started to dwindle Wendy found her opportunities were diminishing in the north west region which boasts a large number of talented apprentices. She accepted an offer to link up with the Rodney Robb stable at Nyngan. “Rod had over thirty horses in work at the time and promised me regular rides on the western circuit,” said Wendy. “I arrived in Nyngan at the height of the terrible NSW drought and swallowed plenty of dust over the next few months.
“I shared the stable riding with the talented Clayton Gallagher and had a good time. It was a thrill to win the Cotton Cup on Bells ‘N’ Bows at Warren, and the Louth Cup on Austin for Rodney.”
Wendy also spent a fascinating month in the Queensland outback, taking in Cup meetings at Betoota, Bedourie and Birdsville. “We won a few races including the Bedourie Cup and had a wonderful time between meetings,” she said. “We did a lot of fishing, met some great outback characters and swapped yarns around the campfire at night. It was something every Australian should do at least once.”
Wendy was thrilled to win two races on Blinkin Fast, part owned by her mother Karen and trained by Sue Grills. Here's an under the rail shot of a Scone win 22/02/2019 - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Wendy has had her eye on Queensland for quite some time and jumped at the opportunity when the position with Paul Butterworth came up. “I rode at a Toowoomba meeting last November where I ran into former successful apprentice Chris Wearne who was working for Paul Butterworth at the time,” she said. “Chris told me it was a progressive stable and would be a great place to work should a position become available. So here I am.”
Butterworth would already be well aware that he’s indentured one of the hardest working young jockeys in the nation. Her work ethic is matched only by her passion for riding racehorses. With Paul’s blessing she goes straight to Eagle Farm when her commitments to his stable are complete and jumps on a few more for several other trainers - all up riding twelve or thirteen horses most mornings.
That kind of input and an abundance of natural talent will quickly bring its rewards. And she won’t need to go to three meetings in one day to prove her point.
Winners are grinners! Wendy unsaddles Semtex after a win at Barraba 22/09/2018 - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
(Banner image - Wendy wins on Ozark at Muswellbrook 06/11/2018 - She says he's one of the fastest horses she's ridden - courtesy Bradley Photographers.)